The List

Complexity: Change over time, multiple points of view, across the disciplines.

Purpose

Each of these eleven tools are considered essential elements one needs to master a subject. For example, chemists need to understand the language of a chemist, the different points of view of in chemistry, the rules that govern chemistry, the ethical decisions chemists face, etc. Likewise, a master of chess would be an expert in the language of chess, the patterns of chess games, the rules to follow, and the way the game has changed over time.

When students think using these tools, they learn to approach subjects from the point of view of an expert. In doing so, they will understand concepts in a deeper and more complex way.

The best part is, these tools are accessible to young students which means you will have no problem picking them up!

Getting To Know Depth and Complexity

Rather than reinvent the wheel, I’ll point you towards some outstanding resources created by other teachers:

The Depth and Complexity Icons

Although the graphical icons are available all over the internet, I’ve struggled for years getting them to fit nicely into a word document. They are always too big, don’t scale down well, and frequently throw off my carefully designed worksheet. I finally buckled down and created some resized versions to improve their readability at small sizes.

Name

Small

Tiny

Big Idea

Details

Ethics

Rules

Patterns

Trends

Language of the Discipline

Unanswered Questions

The “New” Icons

Next Steps

Next in this series, we’ll look at another set of thinking tools to differentiate your instruction for gifted students: the content imperatives. Later, we’ll also look at how you can combine these tools to create truly rigorous statements. Don’t miss out!